


Lights In the Sky

by poolsidescientist



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 13:05:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8103490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poolsidescientist/pseuds/poolsidescientist
Summary: A night in an especially bad motel leaves Scully to contemplate her devotion to the X-Files.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the X-files.
> 
> Timeline: Set mid season-3.

Truth be told, Dana Scully hated cockroaches. And bedbugs. And whatever other vermin crawled through the fleabag motels that she and Mulder too often called home for the night. She had taken enough biology classes to understand the ecological importance of such animals, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed sharing a room with them.

It was at 3:52am that Scully had finally reached her breaking point. Finally able to fall asleep, she dreamed that she was on her couch, petting Queequeg and flipping through a magazine. He felt so real lying there beside her, his soft warm body curled up against hers. She reached out to pet his long bald tail…but Queequeg didn’t have a long bald tail and he certainly didn’t squeak. At that moment, Scully was rudely awoken from her dream. She looked down. Instead of Queequeg beside her was the largest rat she had ever seen in her life. It looked up at her with its beady black eyes and squeaked innocently. She contemplated throwing her pillow at it. By that point, she had lost all desire to try and go back to sleep.

By the time she got out of bed the rat had scurried off somewhere. Likely with more of it’s own kind. Scully shuddered to think how many rat droppings had been littered on the dated shag carpet over the years. She would have to call an exterminator in the morning.

Grabbing her slippers, she opened the door and walked gingerly down the hall and out the front door. Closing the door behind her, she sat down on the least splintery part of the motel’s front steps and looked up at the sky.

It was a beautiful night. The air was crisp with a gentle breeze as dew was just starting to form on the sparse patches of grass between the motel and the parking lot. Crickets chirped softly and the occasional hum of a passing car could be heard from the highway. But most beautiful was the night sky. There was not a cloud or streetlight in sight, and the sky was lit up with thousands, if not millions of stars. It was an incredible sight. Scully couldn’t help but look up in wonder, and for a moment she forget about the dog-sized rat, uncomfortable rental car, and endless mound of paperwork that awaited her.

She could have watched those stars forever, if she had let herself. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. She had work to do. Despite being marvels of both the physics she had studied and God’s creation, which had guided her throughout her life, Scully knew that wonder alone would never fully satisfy her.

Though she would never admit this to Mulder, sometimes she did wonder about lights in the sky and other aspects of the unknown that had become as mundane to her as the bland coffee in the FBI cafeteria. Her fellow agents and especially her family had questioned why she stayed on with the X-files, but over time Scully had grown dedicated to both the assignment and her partner.

Aliens, monsters, government conspiracies, behind every outlandish case were real people who deserved justice. She had joined the FBI because she believed that it was the best place for her to use her scientific and medical knowledge to save and improve lives. And that’s exactly what she was doing. Yes, she had seen and heard incredible things but lives were being saved, missing people were being found, and murderers were being brought to justice. Tangible cases were being solved. Paperwork was being filled out. Justice was being served. Human lives were at stake, extreme possibilities or not, and she had a job to do.

Even after nearly dying at the hands of her own government she had returned to her job. Mulder seemed convinced that she was abducted by aliens, but all she saw was a conspiracy of men abusing their power. Men that even she wasn’t sure could be brought to justice. Men that killed her sister among others, and who valued their power over the wellbeing of the people they were supposed to protect. There was no mysterious answer beyond the stars and the realm of possibility to explain their action, just plain old power and greed. Not even a night as beautiful as this one could conceal such ugly truths about mankind. She couldn’t help but be cynical after everything that she had experienced.

If Scully wanted to see what it would look like to be satisfied by wonder alone, she need look no further than her partner. If it were Mulder sitting on these rickety wooden steps instead of her, he would gaze at them with more fascination that she assumes she’s ever felt in her life. His passion and dedication were his strengths though also his shortcomings. Shortcomings she did her best to counteract with her practicality and skepticism. He could spend his whole life wondering about the mysteries of the universe while she could spend hers without considering them. They were both narrow minded in their own right. But together they were a light in the dark.

Scully felt the air grow warmer and the breeze die down. Soon enough it would be time to inspect her clothes for rodent droppings before spending hours on the road. Mulder’s sunflower seeds would litter the dashboard of their rental care, and dust from the road would fly in through an open window. It was going to be a long day with a bizarre case that no other agent wanted to even take a second look at. But there were no other agents like Mulder and Scully. And whether the case turned out to be extraordinary or mundane, Mulder would do everything in his power to find answers and Scully would do everything in her power to bring about justice.


End file.
